Colorado: Even the stoned can avoid taxes

Colorado hoped to get $100 million in recreational pot taxes this fiscal year. That's been revised down to $30.6 million because even the stoned know how to avoid taxes.

Revenues from the first six months of legal recreational sales came in more than 60 percent below expectations.

Pot tourists go to Colorado to get high on recreational pot, but apparently locals are using medical marijuana, which is taxed at a lower rate. A special legislative group is meeting to come up with a plan for how to turn this around.

Raising taxes for something that's been sold as "medicine" might be a hard sell.

Meanwhile, the dramatically lower-than-expected tax revenue undercuts one of the best arguments for legalizing recreational use. In states that have legalized pot as medicine, the financial benefits of legalizing recreational use may not be that impressive.

That changes the debate.

It would be an ironic twist if medical marijuana – which was primarily a ruse to legitimize pot – turned out to be a barrier to full legalization.